Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Poison Stiffs
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Jin Guk-ho felt an immense pang of regret. He had let the Heavenly Demon slip through his fingers when victory had been all but assured. Even after unleashing the Golden Demon Art, he had still lost him. There was nothing more to say.
"Looks like I was a bit slow deploying the Golden Demon Art."
That was the only conclusion he could draw. The mental shock from watching the Heavenly Demon kill the Martial Emperor must have been greater than he realized.
"And to think the Martial Emperor went out so pointlessly..."
The Martial Emperor's death had been utterly meaningless. Of course, from the Martial Alliance's perspective, it might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. They could now absorb the warriors of the Martial Emperor Castle, who had lost their central pillar. It wouldn't be easy, but it was possible.
Pushing aside his regrets, he focused on what needed to be done. Right now, resuming the chase to recapture the Heavenly Demon was the top priority.
"I'll need to request more reinforcements."
He had realized that catching the Heavenly Demon in his current state wouldn't be easy. The man was truly formidable.
After roughly organizing the situation, Jin Guk-ho turned his gaze to the carriage. Standing before it were still the five stunning women. His eyes softened in an instant.
Jin Guk-ho had no inkling that Dan Hyeong-u, standing beside those beautiful women, was the natural counter to his Golden Demon Art.
With a smile spreading across his face, Jin Guk-ho approached the carriage. Though he had failed to capture the Heavenly Demon, that didn't diminish his heroic feat of saving them from the threat.
"I'm relieved to see you're all safe."
Jin Guk-ho addressed Umun Hye, the most striking of them, his eyes brimming with anticipation and brimming with confidence. It was only natural for the hero who had rescued them.
But contrary to his expectations, Umun Hye turned her head away with a cold expression. Her reaction left Jin Guk-ho flustered. As he stood there at a loss, Jo Seol-yeon stepped forward once more.
"Thank you for your concern. We'll be on our way now."
At Jo Seol-yeon's words, Jin Guk-ho nodded eagerly, unable to hide his delight.
"Ah, yes, of course."
With a gesture from Jo Seol-yeon, Umun Hye and the other four women boarded the carriage, their faces tinged with dissatisfaction. They didn't care for Jin Guk-ho at all.
As the four women climbed aboard, the Sword Demon leaped onto the carriage roof. Once Dan Hyeong-u and Jo Seol-yeon joined them, they would be ready to depart.
For some reason, Jin Guk-ho felt he couldn't just let them go like this.
"Ah, the road ahead is still dangerous. Allow me to escort you. It would be trouble if the Heavenly Demon showed up again."
Jo Seol-yeon gave a wry smile and shook her head at his offer.
"We appreciate the kindness, but we're fine as is. Please attend to Martial Alliance matters, Hero Jin."
With Jo Seol-yeon putting it so firmly, Jin Guk-ho had no choice but to relent.
"Then take care."
Worry and regret flickered in Jin Guk-ho's eyes. Meanwhile, the people on the carriage roof watched him with utter disbelief. It was like a case of eyes but no vision.
As Jo Seol-yeon boarded, Dan Hyeong-u lightly leaped onto the roof. As if waiting for that moment, Jong Chil urged the carriage forward.
The sudden departure startled Jin Guk-ho. It dawned on him that he hadn't even asked where they were from or who they were. That information was essential if he wanted to pursue a connection with them later.
He hurriedly tried to call out something, but it was already too late. Jong Chil drove the carriage at such a blistering pace that it had already receded into the distance.
"Damn it..."
Jin Guk-ho stared helplessly at the carriage shrinking to a dot, his face full of dejection.
"Guess I'm fated to die an old bachelor."
After laying eyes on a beauty like Umun Hye, how could any other woman catch his fancy? With nothing to his name but sky-high standards, finding a good match would be no easy task.
"Sigh... If only I'd gotten her name..."
One more man had fallen for Umun Hye.
Mo Yong-seol hurried back to her family's estate in Yonyeong after the Five Great Families' gathering. She had worried that the Jegal family might pull some scheme, but surprisingly, they did nothing. They had simply quietly withdrawn from the matter involving the Mo Yong family.
In any case, since the Jegal family showed no particular reaction, Mo Yong-seol could return to the estate with some relief. Judging by the mood, they didn't seem likely to scheme against the Mo Yong family anytime soon.
"That's a relief. It seems the Jegal family has concluded that our house is completely finished."
It wasn't an unreasonable judgment. Azure Dragon Sword Mo Yong-cheon was dead, more than half the family warriors were gone, and even Mo Yong Young-hwan had perished. The blow to the Mo Yong family was devastating.
Though Mo Yong-seol possessed exceptional talent, the current circumstances made it hard for her to wield any power. That was because her eldest brother, Mo Yong-hu, stood in the way.
Mo Yong-seol sighed inwardly as she passed through the main gate. Suddenly, she stopped and tilted her head in puzzlement.
"Something's off."
The atmosphere in the estate had changed. Just recently, it had felt like a house in mourning, but now it didn't. A strange vitality permeated the air. It was truly bizarre. Strangely, a sinister aura enveloped the entire estate.
"What in the world..."
Mo Yong-seol quickened her pace toward the inner courtyard. Along the way, she encountered numerous people, most of them strangers. The issue was that these strangers were all dressed in the uniforms of Mo Yong family warriors.
There was no way they could have recruited that many warriors in such a short time. They must have come from somewhere outside.
"The basic rule is not to join hands with just anyone in times like these..."
Mo Yong-seol's steps grew more urgent. With the family in such a weakened state, allying recklessly with outsiders could lead to the estate being swallowed whole. And the one handling this was Mo Yong-hu.
As much as it pained her to say it, Mo Yong-seol didn't acknowledge her brother. He wasn't cut out to be family head. She had drilled into him endlessly that important matters required her presence. Yet here this was happening.
Entering the inner courtyard, Mo Yong-seol froze in her tracks.
There stood a multitude of warriors. Their auras and presences surpassed the ordinary by far. No—they were extraordinary. The problem was that they didn't look like ordinary people at all.
There was no warmth in them. No presence. Their skin was dark and sallow, their eyes vacant and unfocused.
'Stiff corpses...?'
No matter how generously she looked at them, she couldn't call them human. They were clearly jiangshi.
A chill raced up Mo Yong-seol's spine, making her shudder.
At that moment, the doors to the main hall in the inner courtyard—where Mo Yong-hu resided—slid open smoothly. Mo Yong-hu emerged.
"You're back."
"B-Brother, what are these...?"
"Loyal weapons that will serve as my strength from now on."
At Mo Yong-hu's words, Mo Yong-seol felt the world spin before her eyes. A faint thought crossed her mind: the family might end with this generation.
In a dimly lit secret chamber, a vast space housed three large coffins lined up side by side. Inside them churned pitch-black liquid, from which dark poison rose like steam whenever it rippled.
Dok Yeong's eyes gleamed as he beheld the sight.
"Almost ready."
One thing he was certain of: this endeavor had to succeed no matter what. Soon, three corpses would arrive, and they would be placed in those coffins.
That would mark the true beginning. Those corpses would transform into the world's strongest weapons.
The chamber filled with thick black poison fumes. Even Dok Yeong, highly resistant to toxins, was starting to struggle.
He quietly slipped out of the chamber and waited for the corpses.
"The corpses need to be in good condition..."
The state of the corpses was paramount. They had to be from experts who had trained in martial arts for at least decades. Every cell in their bodies needed to bear the traces of that long cultivation for the grand ritual to succeed.
An expert in life was an expert in death. The qi accumulated through lifelong training didn't simply dissipate. It lingered in the body in some form.
That was why relics emerged from the bodies of great monks.
The grand ritual Dok Yeong attempted couldn't even be imitated with just any expert's corpse.
"The greater the expert, the better, but I wonder what kind they'll bring..."
This was a good chance to reassess the Assembly's capabilities. The Assembly had its share of experts, but few had left intact corpses.
"Hmm, Heaven-Shaking Squad level should work somehow."
The Heaven-Shaking Squad consisted of formidable experts. But even they offered no guarantee of success, and the results wouldn't be impressive even if it worked.
"Poison-stiff corpses that only spew venom would be half-baked at best."
What Dok Yeong aimed to create were poison stiffs. He had originally wanted blood stiffs, but that was impossible in their current state. He hadn't fully resolved the issues with the Puppet Gu.
If someone didn't die from the Puppet Gu poisoning, their corpse couldn't serve as blood stiff material.
He had once planned to use the Assembly's experts for blood stiffs, but the Puppet Gu proved ineffective against those of a certain caliber, forcing him to abandon it.
"At least we have iron stiffs."
The Assembly currently possessed hundreds of iron stiffs, secretly being transported to Yonyeong. Half were already stacked away in the Mo Yong family estate.
Iron stiffs were impressive, but they were still just iron stiffs—far inferior to blood stiffs.
That was why Dok Yeong turned to poison stiffs.
The ritual to create poison stiffs wasn't particularly difficult. The problem lay in the materials required.
It demanded countless deadly poisons and spirit medicines, plus an expert's corpse.
Creating them was arduous, but once made, they rivaled blood stiffs in terror. No—when people faced them, they were even more frightening than blood stiffs. That was because they could wield poison qi freely.
He had gathered all the necessary poisons and medicines, but it had taken immense effort and funds. Even with the Assembly's power, three was the limit.
In any case, all that remained were the corpses.
How much time passed? Poison began seeping from the nearly sealed chamber. It meant the liquids in the coffins had reached their peak.
"Urgh, they're too late. We need to start now..."
This was the perfect moment to immerse the corpses. Only then could they fully absorb the poison qi.
Dok Yeong's face grew anxious. At that instant, three figures rose from the shadows—subordinates of Shadowless.
Each carried a corpse.
"You're too late!"
"Forgive us. Restoring the corpses to pristine condition took some time."
Dok Yeong fell silent at their explanation. An intact corpse state was indeed crucial. But he soon tilted his head.
"You mean you restored imperfect corpses to perfection? Were intact ones that hard to find? Ideally, they'd be fresh deaths in perfect form..."
At Dok Yeong's words, the three subordinates presented the corpses.
Dok Yeong examined their faces and stiffened. Then he nodded vigorously.
"I suppose I can understand with ones like these."
Dok Yeong accepted the three corpses and opened the chamber door, stepping inside. An enormous wave of poison surged out the moment it opened.
Shadowless's three subordinates leaped back in alarm, vanishing like phantoms.
The chamber door closed again, and the leaking poison fumes were gradually sucked back inside.
The carriage had by now entered Henan province. The encounter with the Martial Alliance members and the Heavenly Demon had occurred near the border of Hebei and Henan. They had dawdled quite a bit afterward, but the carriage pressed on steadily.
Standing on the roof, Dan Hyeong-u absently stroked the sword at his waist. It was a blade forged with utmost care, made solely for him. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"That happy about it?"
The Sword King grinned and asked. The smile vanished from Dan Hyeong-u's face in an instant. He regarded the Sword King with calm eyes.
"Don't look at me like you've lost your appetite. Why don't you draw that sword and give it a swing? We'll watch."
At the Sword King's words, Dan Hyeong-u slowly drew the blade. The scabbard was crude, and so was the sword. But it was magnificent.
The sword slipped silently from its sheath and danced through the air several times. Not even a whisper of wind accompanied its movements.
The Sword King and Sword Demon nodded in unison.
"Fine sword."
Yet their faces showed puzzlement.
"Still, it's strange. Your old one seemed better."
The Sword Demon agreed with the Sword King. No sharp qi flowed from this blade at all. The previous sword had emanated a flesh-slicing edge even in its scabbard, but this one, fully drawn, emitted none whatsoever. It almost looked edgeless.
"Doesn't seem like the work of an ordinary smith. Truly odd."
The Shadow Emissary chimed in from the side. To him and Tang Ho-gwan, Dan Hyeong-u's sword appeared genuinely peculiar. A craftsman of such caliber wouldn't ruin a blade. There had to be a reason.